The San Diego 500, The Book of Influential Business Leaders, is the market’s most comprehensive product of people you should know in the business community. The 500 includes business leaders and executives who have founded or are running significant companies in terms of number of jobs, key products and services, experts who raise the level of the industry here and beyond and those who lead in the business community. The 500 is selected by the San Diego Business Journal newsroom.

Shelley Lyford

CEO, West Health

Shelley Lyford is the youngest CEO to lead West Health, a collection of organizations focused on seniors and aging. In that role, she oversees the Gary and Mary West Foundation, which she played a critical role in establishing in 2006 and which is now the second-largest private foundation in San Diego and includes The West Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and the medical research arm West Health Institute, all of which were developed under philanthropists Gary and Mary West. She previously was director at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego.

CAR YOU DRIVE: 2016 Porsche Cayenne

BUCKET LIST: Run the Tokyo Marathon.

HOBBIES: Horseback riding, playing basketball.

FUN FACT: “I grew up in a small Vermont village, and I’m proud of my dairy farm roots.”